Doping effect on the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting efficiency and photocatalytic activities of ZrO2 under visible light are reported. The XRD analysis revealed that pure, 0.1 and 0.3 mol% doped samples showed mixed crystal phases (tetragonal and monoclinic) and 0.5 mol% doped sample showed a pure tetragonal phase. Under visible light, 90% of methyl orange dye degradation was achieved with in 100 min. Moreover, the optimal doped sample showed a significant degradation rate constant over other samples. The doped photoelectrodes display a better PEC water oxidation performance over pure photoelectrode. Furthermore, the optimal doped (0.3 mol %) electrode shows 0.644 mAcm-2 photocurrent density, corresponding to an approximate 50-fold enhancement over pure electrode (0.013 mAcm-2). The optimized doped sample achieved 98% degradation of methyl orange within 100 min of light irradiation. The superior PEC water oxidation and photocatalytic activity of optimal doped samples under visible light are credited to suitable doping content, crystalline size, greater surface area, suitable bandgap, a lower charge carrying resistance, surface properties and the ability for decreasing the charge carrier's recombination rate.

中文翻译：

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掺杂铜的ZrO2纳米颗粒作为高性能催化剂，可有效去除有毒有机污染物和稳定的太阳能氧化。

报道了在可见光下掺杂对光电化学（PEC）水分解效率和ZrO2的光催化活性的影响。XRD分析表明，纯的0.1mol％和0.3mol％的掺杂样品显示出混合晶相（四方晶和单斜晶），而0.5mol％的掺杂样品显示出纯的四方晶相。在可见光下，在100分钟内降解90％的甲基橙染料。此外，最佳掺杂样品显示出比其他样品明显的降解速率常数。掺杂的光电极显示出比纯光电极更好的PEC水氧化性能。此外，最佳掺杂电极（0.3摩尔％）显示出0.644 mAcm-2的光电流密度，相当于纯电极（0.013 mAcm-2）的增强约50倍。优化的掺杂样品在光照100分钟内实现了98％的甲基橙降解。最佳掺杂样品在可见光下的优异PEC水氧化和光催化活性归因于合适的掺杂含量，晶体尺寸，更大的表面积，合适的带隙，更低的载流电阻，表面特性以及降低载流子复合率的能力。